Lake Apex in Gatton, Australia

This painting was done on July 2023 by the lake. I was on a solo traveling to Queensland, Australia. I lived in Gatton for 6 months to work on a farm. Being alone without any friends to hang out with was quite miserable to me. I felt so lonely in the first two months, felt like I was lost in my own thoughts. I figure out things and try to embrace them.

It drew me back to my old hobby. So a good friend of mine from Bali sent me a sketchbook and watercolor as I only brought painting brushes but left all the other drawing tools in Bali. Being alone wasn’t too bad apparently. I found my peace when sketching, paying more attention to nature’s details.

I used a 300g cold press sketchpad. It was a travel sketchbook from Baohong. It’s a perfect sketchpad for traveling because it doesn’t take too much room in your bag. I also like the paper because it was quite easy to control the water. It doesn’t dry too fast. I can also lift the color quite easily either with tissue or dump brush and it blends perfectly. By the way, that blue bird in the painting was a purple swamphen that kept walking around when I was sketching.